Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ii / Paper 2 / 15E / Solution

The angles $\psi$ and $\varphi$ are cyclic. Their conjugate momentum components are $p_{\psi }=I_3(\dot{\psi }+\dot{\varphi }\cos \theta )$ and $p_{\varphi }=I_1\dot{\varphi }{\sin }^2\theta +p_{\psi }\cos \theta$, so both are conserved; consequently ${\omega }_3=p_{\psi }/I_3$ is constant. With $q=I_3{\omega }_3=p_{\varphi }>0$,Eliminating the cyclic velocities gives the nutation effective potentialapart from the constant axial spin energy. ThusThe endpoint $\theta =\pi$ is excluded for these nonzero conserved momenta: the effective potential diverges there. The apparent Euler-angle singularity at $\theta =0$ is interpreted by its smooth small-tilt limit.